Most of the users that come to your site, will not know what a “Internal Server Error” or “404” error is. They will not bother to check out the Apache manual either.

Custom error messages are not something to (just) show off with. In terms of (web-)usability, you are able to display a more friendlier or meaningful message to your users, and everyone will live happier ever after.

A lot of people still ask me how to add custom error pages to their website. Since some ISPs charge an arm and a leg to add them, here is how it is done – for free!

You log onto your shell and create a file called .htaccess in your document root. This can be achieved if you type “pico .htaccess”, “ee .htaccess” or “joe .htaccess” on the shell prompt. Let’s assume that you want to display a custom error page for “File not found”-errors (code: 404).